Stuck for ideas for Christmas prezzies? You could do worse than buy sweet treats for everyone on your list! Our secret shopper Charlotte checks out what's on offer…
Charlotte says:
I got the idea of looking for edible prezzies when I was Christmas shopping with my family in John Lewis. There was such an amazing range of confectionary on show… I thought there'd have to be something for everyone there, although some of the prices were a bit eye-watering! I loved the gingerbread houses… they were so beautiful and unusual… but the largest one was £75! Um… I love my friends and family, but I can't imagine shelling that amount out for what is basically a biscuit! There were smaller ones for £15 which was a LOT more reasonable, given the detail and the quality of the product.
Another expensive find was this amazing chocolate penguin - it was £70! It was absolutely huge, and I don't think you would ever want to eat it - it was so adorable in all its chocolatey loveliness! There were lots of smaller sweet treats, though… snowmen and Santas for between £3.50 and £12. These were great, but still not quite the bargains I was looking for, as the cost would soon mount up if you were buying for a lot of friends.
I loved browsing here because of the sheer indulgence; the displays were so lovely and creative, and I got lots of ideas for things to buy. It definitely got me in the mood for Christmas! I decided I'd look for items in other shops, though, just to keep the costs down… I'm looking for pocket-money prices, alas! It wasn't all 'window shopping' though - Mum bought a gorgeous LED tree which was very reasonably priced at £15 and got us all feeling festive!
My last find was these little snowmen, which were actually white Belgian chocolates at £3 for a packet of three. That's £1 per snowman, so again not cheap… I might get one or two packs as cool extra gifts, but only for that special someone! These are something I wouldn't mind finding in my own Christmas stocking, too… hint, hint!
Cathy says:
Charlotte's 'secret shopping' trip looks like it was a lot of fun… and I love the idea of giving confectionary themed prezzies, too! Have you finished YOUR Christmas shopping yet? COMMENT BELOW to tell us about your best bargains - and blow-outs!
I got the idea of looking for edible prezzies when I was Christmas shopping with my family in John Lewis. There was such an amazing range of confectionary on show… I thought there'd have to be something for everyone there, although some of the prices were a bit eye-watering! I loved the gingerbread houses… they were so beautiful and unusual… but the largest one was £75! Um… I love my friends and family, but I can't imagine shelling that amount out for what is basically a biscuit! There were smaller ones for £15 which was a LOT more reasonable, given the detail and the quality of the product.
I loved browsing here because of the sheer indulgence; the displays were so lovely and creative, and I got lots of ideas for things to buy. It definitely got me in the mood for Christmas! I decided I'd look for items in other shops, though, just to keep the costs down… I'm looking for pocket-money prices, alas! It wasn't all 'window shopping' though - Mum bought a gorgeous LED tree which was very reasonably priced at £15 and got us all feeling festive!
Cathy says:
Charlotte's 'secret shopping' trip looks like it was a lot of fun… and I love the idea of giving confectionary themed prezzies, too! Have you finished YOUR Christmas shopping yet? COMMENT BELOW to tell us about your best bargains - and blow-outs!
I always buy a little sweet treat for at least a few people on my Christmas list. My step-dad and mum will be getting a box of Thorntons chocolates each (I made the mistake of just getting my mum a Thorntons gift basket last year and she barely got to glance at it before my step-dad gobbled half the contents!) and some little extras from Thorntons. I know Mum wants their Viennese truffles and my step-dad wants something from there too. My little brother found a 1kg bag of candy corn online that I ordered for him - he can't eat a lot on his no gluten, no wheat, no lactose diet so he deserves a full kilo of sweets he is allowed. I haven't got anything edible for my big sister but I might pop into M and S and get her those posh biscuits she likes. I've got some American sweets as a little extra for my friend who's coming to visit and I was going to order some Hello Kitty sweets for another friend (she got me some of the Hello Kitty brownie bits a couple of years back and they were delicious) but alas, they were out of stock! I'll have to check back soon - can't have my friends going without yums!
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I have bought all the Christmas gifts for my friends and my parents but I am yet to buy for my sister because it was her birthday a few weeks ago and I had to buy gifts for that first of course but I have plenty of ideas! I'll start with my parents gifts-me and my sister shared the costs. For my dad we got him an american imported pop tart in the cinnamon flavour-I'm not sure how much this was because my sister bought it but it was from Peggy Annes in the Trentham shopping town. I bought a handmade apricot jam jar for him but my sister chose it. It was either £3.50 or £2.50 so it was quite cheap considering how delicious it is (we gave some to him before and tried it) and the fact that it is handmade. In natural World (found in Trentham shopping town) my sister bought an elephant candle for my mum- it was £5.00 but it is very pretty. I found a cherry scented body butter in superdrug which was quite cheap. My mum had asked for some from M&S on her Christmas list but she said not to buy her any from there because it is expensive apparently. The cherry one smells amazing though. I have got presents for 5 friends of mine. For my friend Tilly, I made an advent calender (I was inspired by TopModel magazine November issue) and it was filled with éclairs and sherbet straws from poundland. I used gift labels as the doors (also from poundland) and I used transfers from the magazine as numbers! I had already put the sweets in the doors already though so I couldn't use them as transfers properly so I just stuck them on! For my friend Emma I got a really good bargain! I bought from the works a set of 2 matching items, a calender 2015 and a diary with cute puppies on and the 2 of them together in a set, were only £3! She recently got a dog so I thought it would be great for her! For my friend Keren (who I don't know that well so I just got her generic gifts) I bought a really pretty pencil case tin with sellotape, a correcting pen and a glue-stick (that matched the outside) inside. I also got a really cool pad of sticky notes-they were all square but each one was turned a bit so it had a really cool shape overall! For my friend Izzy I re-used an empty bauble I got last year ( which had chocolate coins in before I ate them) and i bought some sweets-mini gob-stoppers,millions in mixed flavours and wrapped maom sweets to put in. I closed it up and wrapped a loom band (diamond-made by me)around it and secured a lipstick shaped rubber inside it(made by the company TopModel). For my friend Eleanor, I got a handmade fox purse which was made using appliqué, it was £5! Oh, and I also made my Nanna a notebook (I actually binded it by sewing) with a 3D flower on it that I coloured in and shaped myself! I will give this to her because I already made it but I am not buying for anybody else in my outer family (i.e. family who don't live in my house)-however if i have time I might just make organic soap for them using a kit but i am not planning to buy anything because I am running out of time and Mum says I don't need to. I have a cousin robin who is quite young and he would be upset if I didn't get him a gift I'm sure, so I got him a 3 piece set of Mr men books. They were the special ones with glitter and other stuff on it. I bought them from WHSmith and they were £5 but I split the price with my sister. The wrapping paper I will be using some of this year is actually découpage paper but it is so pretty and smooth with reindeer illustrations on it. it was quite expensive considering the small amount of paper in it but it is beautiful from the works. Enjoy your Christmas and remember to buy gifts everyone. I hope you have been inspired by my comment. :)
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